Malls, Madness, and Murder
by Tang Si Ming-Yue
Summary: A mystery is at hand. Who is there to solve it but five teenagers locked in the mall? But will danger beat them to it? Or maybe even death... //for Twilight Rose2's August contest//


A/N: Okay, saw subject for Twilight Rose2's contest, decided I'd type and see what happened. So, I don't know how my mystery thing here will turn out here, but let's hope it's good.

Disclaimer: Sokka: You think TANGY owns us?! –hysterical laughing-

Tangy: Hey! It's possible! …Not true, but possible! I also don't own Scooby-Doo, which is mentioned once or twice in here, 'kay?

**Malls, Madness, and Murder**

"I can_not_ believe you got us locked in the mall!"

Sokka's head drooped. His foot moved in continuous circles as he, Katara, Aang, Toph, and Zuko all stood in the center of the dark, un-alive mall. "I just wanted to find that bag! Is that really so bad?"

"It is when you get us _locked in the mall!"_ Katara shouted at her brother.

"Okay, let's not get too worked up about this," Aang said rather calmly considering the situation at hand.

Katara sighed and slumped onto the bench behind her, beside the giant fountain.

"Okay, we need a plan of action," said Aang. "How are we gonna get out of here?"

"We could go shopping for man purses," said Toph, smirking at Sokka as she said so.

Sokka glared. "It's not a man purse!" He shouted as he flailed his arms frantically. Toph just laughed.

Zuko, arms crossed, said, "We could go to the arcade. They never lock the doors."

Sokka stopped his yelling. "I like your thinking, Zuko!" He slung his shoulder around the scarred boy's shoulder, which Zuko immediately threw off.

"Wait," Aang said, sitting on the bench next to his girlfriend. "Weren't we planning to, I don't know, get out of the mall and not stay in it?"

"Well, we were," said Toph. "But then we realized that this is more fun than going home to watch fishing on cable."

"You watch?"

"You know what I mean!"

Katara sighed. "It's just so creepy… I mean, didn't you hear about that security guard?"

"Oh, you mean the one that went missing today here at the mall?" Sokka asked. "The one that went into the storage room and _never came out?_ The one that_ doesn't exist?!"_

"Seriously Katara," Zuko said. "I thought you were 16! I can't believe that you still believe in those stories the adults tell us to freak us out."

Katara glared. Aang gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

Toph sighed. "To be honest, I don't care about some missing security guy. I just wanna go to the arcade and play 'Avatar vs. Firelord' without having to wait in line."

"And just how do you play without seeing?" Sokka asked, turning a confused head towards her.

"I don't," said Toph, grinning. "I just guess."

"But don't you have the current high score?!"

"Yup!"

Sokka seethed. "This is injustice! Outrageous! I demand rules! Guidelines!"

"I demand that you shut up!" Zuko shouted.

Aang, giving in, said, "Well, we _are_ here. Might as well make the best of it, right?"

Katara gave in as well and said, "Sure. Let's go to the… Zuko?"

Zuko turned his head to see her. "Yeah?"

"How do you know the arcade door's unlocked?"

Everyone turned to look at Zuko, waiting expectantly for an answer.

Zuko shifted his eyes back and forth. "That's not the point. Let's go!"

oOoOo

"Aw, man! Are you kidding me?" Sokka said, despaired.

Sokka's favorite game, 'Boomerang Warrior', was sitting in its usual spot in the arcade. Taped to the screen, though, was a sign written in colorful marker that clearly read, "Out of Order".

"This sucks!" Sokka kicked the machine in spite, but since karma just loves Sokka, his foot bounced back in searing pain from the impact.

Sokka yelped. Katara and Aang laughed. Zuko and Toph were too immersed in their own game to notice.

"You're going down, Toph!"

"Not a chance, Sparky!"

"If you didn't realize, this is a video game. I have working and eyes and you don't. So, who has the better advantage here?"

The game suddenly shut down. The screen read 'BlindBandit wins. FlameThrower loses. New high score!'.

"It's still me," said Toph, answering Zuko's question.

He stared at the screen. "You beat me… you can't see, and you… you beat me…!"

"Just let it go," Katara said.

"Yeah," Aang agreed. "You kind of get used to it."

Sokka wasn't paying attention. "I bet this game works! Some snotty little kid probably put that sign up so they could come back later and play it without waiting!"

"If I remember," Aang started, "isn't that what _you_ did when we were 10?"

Sokka turned scarlet. "That's not the point! Look, I'll just go behind the machine and plug it in. No prob whatsoever!"

"Except that you couldn't fit behind the machine if you tried," said Zuko, finally recovering from his defeat.

Sokka looked again at the tiny space between the wall and the game. It was just about the size of –

"Katara!" Sokka spun around to look at his sister. "You can fit back there! _Pleeeease_ plug it in!"

Katara rolled her eyes. "Sure, why not?" she said monotonously.

Sokka punched the air. "Alright! That's my sis!"

Katara dropped to the ground and crawled between the wall and game. Feeling around with her hands, she felt no wire as of yet. In her confusion, she bumped into the back of the arcade game. The back of the entire machine fell down, nearly landing on Katara. She moved her head in time, though, and relieved that she survived a possible concussion, she lifted her head and saw inside the machine –

Katara screamed louder and longer and higher than she had ever screamed before in her life.

"What's wrong? What happened?" Aang asked in a frenzy. He squeezed his head in the crack in the wall to see a doe-eyed Katara staring at the cold, lifeless body of a security guard inside the arcade machine.

"Get out of there, now!" Aang shouted. He grabbed the girl's arm and pulled back hard, resulting in both of them tumbling backwards and out from behind the wall.

"What's going on?" Sokka asked, sincerely concerned. He could feel himself going into overprotective brother mode.

"I hope you guys aren't freaking over a spider or something," Zuko said.

Aang sat on the ground, cradling Katara's weeping frame. He pet her hair softly and gently as Katara cried and cried endless tears. Aang whispered comforting words as the others looked on.

"I _really_ hope you guys aren't freaking over a spider," Toph said, feeling and hearing this scene.

Sokka turned to look behind the arcade game.

"Don't!" Aang shouted. "Don't go back there, Sokka!"

"My sister is crying her guts out over there and you expect me to _not_ see why?" Sokka peeked behind the machine before quickly spinning around.

"Oh my, God…"

"Well?" Zuko asked. "Are _you_ going to tell us just why everyone is going insane?"

"There's a dead security guard back there," Sokka said. "It's the one they said went missing! His nametag says 'Bato'."

Zuko and Toph's eyes both widened. "He was in the arcade game?!" the scarred boy questioned.

Sokka nodded. "So much for completely fake scary stories."

"So…" Toph started, a tiny bit timid. "There really is a dead guy back there?"

"Yeah," said Sokka. "And we gotta do something about it. We have to find the police or something!"

"Well, too bad we can't, remember?" Zuko said. "We have no phone! Toph's parents won't let her have one, Aang left his at home, Katara's has a dead battery, mine has crappy service and won't get any reception here, and _yours_ is broken because you dropped it in your rush to find your frickin' man purse!"

Sokka rubbed his chin in thought. "Isn't it funny how all of our phones have somehow become of no use? I bet someone is planning all this! It's a conspiracy against us!"

"I think it's funny that no one's pummeled you yet," said Toph.

"So… plan of action?"

"I say we try to figure this thing out," Sokka said. "Look for clues and stuff, try to solve the case, and see if we can make it 'til morning without getting killed."

Toph and Zuko looked at Sokka. "Whoa… why are you guys giving me that, 'aren't-you-stupid?' look?"

"I think it's a good idea," said Aang. "We need to do something… if there's no one here to help us, then we have to do it on our own."

"We don't know what's going on, though," Zuko argued. "We could get killed for all we know!"

"I think we should at least try to figure this out," said Katara, speaking for the first time. Her eyes were still wet with tears, but she seemed much more joyful than before. "No one's here but us. We have to do… well, _something."_

Aang stood up before helping Katara off the ground. Sokka looked almost ecstatic.

"I've always wanted to say what I'm about so say… Okay, let's split up and search for clues!"

"What is this, an episode of Scooby-Doo?"

oOoOo

The 5 friends stood in the center of the mall, near the fountain once more. "Sokka, are you sure we should split up?"

"Well, no, I think we should stick together for now. We can see what we can find in that storage room where Bato was last seen… y'know, _alive._ _Then_ we can split up and see what we can find separately."

"Sounds good, I guess," Toph said. "So we gonna go or what?"

"Yeah," said Aang. "We need to hurry before 7:00am, when the mall opens back up."

"Airhead," Zuko said in a somewhat monotone. "It's only 11:30. The sun isn't coming up anytime soon."

oOoOo

"You'd think this room would be bigger," Zuko said.

The room was full of only a few boxes, a dangling light fixture, a table and a coffee maker. The room was basically empty.

"You guys see anything?" Sokka asked.

"A little bit of blood on the ground, but that's the only thing I see out of the ordinary." Katara sighed. "It's not like we know what we're looking for."

The five of them strolled around the room, searching for even the slightest thing that might lead them to a conclusion.

Aang noticed something shining on the ground. Curious, he bent down to look at it. Looking closely, he saw it was a piece of glass. Wondering where it could have come from, he looked into the box next to him. What he found was surprising.

"Guys, come take a look at this."

The others came over to look inside the box that Aang had picked up off the ground and moved onto the table.

"A bunch of store merchandise?"

"Yeah," said Aang. "But… all the stuff in here has tags on it."

"You don't think it's stolen, do you?" Katara asked.

"I'd guess so. But why would it all be here?"

"Maybe Bato is the one that stole all this stuff," Zuko suggested.

"So he killed himself?" Toph asked sarcastically.

"…Possibly."

"And then he moved himself into the arcade and locked himself inside in a machine?"

"…Okay, so my idea doesn't exactly cut it."

"Well, either way, we've figured a little bit out," said Sokka. "We have a clue!"

"Maybe we should go and look around the mall now," said Katara.

"Yeah, we should," Zuko agreed.

"Alright, so let's just put this box back and we'll be on our way!" said Sokka. He took the box and put it back in the same spot Aang had found it in.

The others watched him silently, and once done, they friends walked out the door.

The second the door was closed, though, they found themselves face to face with a man dressed in black pants and a long-sleeved blue polo, a nametag clipped to his shirt claiming him to be Long Feng the security guard.

"What are you children doing here? And in the storage room, no less?"

They all looked at each other. Sokka answered before the other could however, and said, "We were just looking for the bathroom! And then we said to ourselves, 'Oh, look! The mall is closed and we're locked 

in!' So, we went around looking for help, and we thought that we could find someone in the storage room here! And, well, here we are!"

The other teens gaped at him. This was their ticket out of the mall and away from this murder crime, and here he was _covering_ for them!

"Well, I'm afraid that our policy here is that once the doors are locked, they're not open until morning. No one gets in, no one gets out." Long Feng stared each of them in the eye, then, and said deeply and menacingly, "And if _any_ of you try to leave, I will personally take care of you."

Long Feng straightened himself. "If you'll excuse me, I need to finish my patrol."

Long Feng turned briskly and walked off with his nose in the air.

"…Did that guy just threaten us?" Toph asked.

"No idea," Zuko said.

"Sokka!" Aang yelled. "Why didn't you tell him about Bato? We could have been out of here!"

"Are you kidding?" Sokka said. "That guy was totally suspicious! He practically screams 'I did it!'"

"He's a security guard, what could he possibly want with killing another guard?" asked Zuko.

"I don't know! I haven't gotten that far!"

"He _did_ seem kind of suspicious…" Katara said.

"Yeah," said Toph. "And I'm pretty sure he threatened us!"

"That just proves that we have to _stay!"_

"How did you come up with that conclusion?"

Aang sighed. "We might as well try to figure out the rest since we're _stuck here!"_

Everyone glared at Sokka.

"I just wanted my new bag!"

"Man purse."

"_Not a man purse!"_

oOoOo

Once more, the five friends stood by the fountain in the heart of the mall.

"So we agree that we're all gonna meet here in an hour, right?"

Everyone nodded.

"And that Toph is going to go with me for some actual eyes?"

Everyone nodded again.

Sokka clapped his hands together. "I'm gonna try this one more time. Okay, let's split up and search for clues!"

"Didn't I tell you this _isn't _a Scooby-Doo episode?"

oOoOo

Sokka and Toph walked towards the security guards' break room, deciding that they should try and look for something to pin down Long Feng.

"Are you sure this is the right way, Toph?" Sokka asked.

"Well, what does the door in front of us read?"

"…Break Room…"

"Ah. So I'm gonna guess that despite my blindness, I led us in the right direction."

"Shut up! I'm trying, here!"

They walked into the break room. Looking around, they saw a vending machine on the back wall, a table in the center of the room in which a box of old donuts sat. To the right, there was a counter where a coffee maker and a sink were, and a fridge was next to that. On the left wall, a series of cubbies sat, labeled with a staff member's name on each box.

"Let's check out those cubbies," Sokka suggested to the blind girl.

"Sure. It's not like we have anything else to do."

Examining the boxes, they found Long Feng's in the middle of all the boxes. Inside, they found a jacket, a change of clothes, and a photo.

"What's this picture here?" Sokka asked. He took it out for a closer look.

"What is it?" Toph asked. "Describe it to me."

"There's all these guys in the picture. They're dressed in these funny robes with a circle on middle of them. Then they have these big, funny looking sun hats. And… there's Long Feng! In the very front and to the side… but he doesn't have a hat…"

"The leader, maybe?"

"Could be. But what is…" Sokka flipped the photo over and saw a messy scrawl on the back. "Oh. It says here that they're called the…" he squinted in an attempt to read the crooked writing. "…Dai Li."

"Hmm," muttered Toph. "Weird. What kind of club thingy do you think they are?"

"Maybe some kind of secret society working against the government!" Sokka shouted. "Ooh, that would be so cool!"

Toph stomped on Sokka's foot. Sokka yelped in shock and grabbed his foot.

"Toph!" he complained, hopping on his one good foot as he clutched the other.

"You were bugging me!"

"And that's an excuse?!"

"It is in my book!"

oOoOo

Zuko decided that the best place to search for clues would be the arcade, where they found the body of Bato.

…And if he just _happened_ to play a game or two, well, who would ever know, right?

Looking around, he found that there was nothing of particular interest. But… Zuko _was_ a little curious as to the man inside the 'Boomerang Warrior' game. He went around back, poked his head through and saw that the back of the machine was closed.

Zuko was baffled. Hadn't they left it open? He stuck his arm through and banged the machine as hard as he could. The back almost immediately opened.

But nothing was inside.

oOoOo

Aang thought that a smart place to look would be in the box full of stolen merchandise in the storage room. Hurrying to the small, closet-like room, he pulled out the big box as soon as he got there.

Aang pulled out every object one by one for examination before laying it on the table. Fancy dinner ware, doilies, balloons and streamers, the type of things you would expect for some kind of big, fancy dinner party.

Why would a thief need party supplies?!

Aang sighed. It didn't make sense! And, look! Aang found at the bottom of the box a tuxedo! Why would a thief need a tuxedo?! Obviously, he was preparing for some big event. But if a man had to resort to 

stealing to get these things, then why would they have been invited to such a fancy, sophisticated event in the first place?

What kind of crazy duck chase was this?

oOoOo

Katara was on her way to the entrance of the mall, where security usually stood guard. Both Long Feng and Bato would have spent most of their time here. There was bound to be something, right?

But, she found nothing out in the open. The area was spotless, except for the scuff marks from the shoes of the many men that stood there.

Katara sighed and slumped against a sign advertising foot cream that no one would ever buy. She blew a strand of hair out her face, and she sat there for a moment for no particular reason.

Sitting there, not know what to do next, she raised her arms and started tapping a beat on the back of the metal sign. She tapped some random beat she made up on the spot, and as she did so, she felt something odd. It felt like… paper. Not poster board, but paper, and only on one part of the sign…

She leaned backwards to look at the sign on the back. Taped in the corner was a folded up piece of paper. Katara took it off and leaned back forward to read it.

She unfolded the paper, and carefully read to herself. The farther she read, the more appalled she became.

"I can't believe this!" she whispered to herself. "The whole thing is right he-"

"Thank you for finding my note," a voice said.

Katara looked up to see the familiar man. He pointed a gun at the girl, and Katara heard it cocked.

"I think you should come with me."

oOoOo

"Alright, guys! It's been an hour. Information report!"

"Wait," Aang muttered. "Where's Katara?"

"Eh, I'm sure she'll be here soon," Sokka said. "It's probably just taking a while for her to get here cuz she's on another part of the mall or something."

"Me and Sokka found this picture in Long Feng's cubbie in the break room," Toph said. Sokka pulled out the picture of the security guard and the Dai Li.

"Who are they?" Zuko asked.

"The Dai Li," Sokka answered. "Long Feng is in this picture with them. _And,_ on the back, there's a listing of every person in the group. This guy," Sokka pointed at a man in the center of the group, "Bonzu, has his own cubbie in the break room, so he's a security guard here, too. This could be some kind of group project thing to them."

"Well," Aang started, "I went back to the storage room to look at the stuff in that box. There were party decorations, fancy dinnerware, and a tuxedo, for whatever reason. Sounds like they're on their way to a big party."

"But if he's a thief, then why-"

"No idea," Aang interrupted Sokka.

"I went to the arcade," said Zuko.

"To what, beat my score?" asked Toph. "Like that would happen."

"_No,_ I didn't go to play!"

The other three looked at him.

"Okay, so I played a game or two of 'Agni Kai', but that was _after_ I looked for more clues!"

"Right," said Aang, rolling his eyes while laughing.

"So did you find anything?" Toph wondered.

"Technically, no, but then again, yes."

Sokka sighed. "Are you gonna tell us? Or are you gonna make us play 'Guess What?'"

"The body is gone."

"The body is _gone?!"_

"The body is gone! I looked back there, the machine back was closed even though we didn't leave it that way, I opened it up, and it was gone!"

"Do you think someone hid it somewhere else?" Toph asked.

"I'd put my money on it," Sokka said. "And I would say it was Long Feng, too."

Aang looked at his watch. "It's been an hour or two. Where's Katara?"

"Okay, I'm starting to get worried, too," Zuko said.

"Same," Toph and Sokka said simultaneously.

"Well, where could she be?"

"You guys said it yourself!" Aang shouted. "You said we could be killed! What if she's dead somewhere, shoved inside a box next to Bato, bleeding or crying or-"

"Yeah, let's stop imagining Katara dead, 'kay?" Toph said.

"Okay, we're gonna find my sister no matter what! Let's-"

"DUCK!"

Everyone dropped to the floor at once, no one but Zuko really knowing why. They knew after they heard a gun fire. I crack that wasn't on the side of the fountain was now there, plain as day.

There was silence.

"Is it safe?" Toph whispered.

Sokka slowly lifted his head. A man, not too far away, but far enough so that he couldn't see his face, stood, watching on. He quickly pulled something out of his pocket and threw it at them before running off at the speed of light.

Sokka screamed and ducked back down, covering his head.

"Bomb! Bomb!"

But the others had already stood, looking for what the man had just thrown.

"You can get off the ground and quit yelling 'Bomb!' at the top of your lungs now, Sokka," said Aang.

"Trust me, if it was a bomb, we'd be dead by now," Zuko added.

"How do _you_ know?"

"Common sense, meathead!"

Sokka stood up and brushed himself off. "Find it yet?"

"Nope."

"I think I heard a kind of splashing noise," said Toph. "Maybe it's in the fountain."

Zuko grinned. "I've always wanted to do this…" The scarred teen jumped into the fountain, creating a tremendous splash that surprisingly got no one else wet.

Zuko sighed. "That felt so good."

"That's nice and all, but did you find anything?" Sokka asked.

"Hmm…" Zuko mumbled. "A few coins, a marble, a paperclip, a magnet advertising Bill's Blenders… hey! Here's what he threw! It's a necklace! You know, it looks _a lot_ like Katara's-"

Zuko was brought out of his talking to himself by a sudden thump. Jumping out of the fountain, he asked, "What happened?"

"Twinkle Toes fainted," Toph said as if it was no surprise.

"Do you know what this means?!" Sokka shouted.

"That Twinkle Toes obviously can't take emotional pain like a real man."

"_No,_ it means that my sister is out there somewhere, that guy knows where, and we don't know what's happened to her! She could be dead or snapped in two or shot and in agony or… or…"

And with that, Sokka was passed out on the ground as well.

"Well, this is helpful," Toph said sarcastically.

Zuko shook himself like a dog next to Aang and Sokka, the water waking them up immediately.

"We gotta find Katara!" Aang yelled as soon as he woke.

"I didn't get the waffles!" Sokka shouted as soon as he woke.

The two looked at each other. "…Yours makes more sense," Sokka said to the tattooed boy.

"You know what I think?" Zuko asked.

Toph sighed. "No, Zuko, what do you think?" she said in an obviously fake voice.

"I think you guys should come with me to the arcade and see if the body is back or not."

"Yeah, because the body is the most important thing here." Sokka rolled his eyes.

"You two said it yourself! For all we know, Katara _could_ be lying next to that guy, and if he's in the arcade machine-"

"TO THE ARCADE!!"

Sokka and Aang both ran off in the direction of the arcade, faster than Toph and Zuko had seen either of them go.

"You know," said Toph, "I'm really worried about Katara… but I'm more worried about those two."

oOoOo

When Toph and Zuko finally caught up with Aang and Sokka, they were already peering behind the machine.

"There's a lock!" Aang shouted. "It won't open!"

"What are we going to do?!" Sokka wailed.

"Umm…" Toph said, at a loss.

"Here!" said Zuko, pulling Katara's necklace out of his pocket and handing it to Aang. "You can have this as a reminder of your lover!"

"Why don't I get it?" Sokka said, whining. "I was her brother!"

"Exactly! You have all her stuff at home!"

"Stop!!" Aang yelled. "Stop talking about her like she's dead! She _can't_ be dead!" A single tear fell from his eye.

"Sorry, sorry," Sokka said. "Joking just kind of lightens the mood, I guess. But you don't think I'm upset, too? All of us?"

The entrance door to the arcade was suddenly kicked down.

"Freeze! This is the police!"

The four turned around to stare bug-eyed at the police officers.

"Sir," one officer said, most likely the chief. "Are these the kids you say you found in the mall?"

Long Feng walked out from behind the officers. "Yes, Officer Pakku, these are the ones."

Pakku sighed, shaking his head. "Kids," he said. "What they won't do these days."

He turned back to them. "We understand that you've been accused for breaking and entering. You have the right to remain silent. We're taking you down town."

"But sir, Officer Pack-oo, sir!" Sokka said, completely messing up the officer's name. "We were locked in the mall! It wasn't our fault!"

"Yeah!" Zuko shouted. "It's not our fault if Sokka here had to go buy his man purse!"

"_Not a man purse!"_

"If you're gonna arrest anyone, take him!"

"Whoa, aren't we together on this?"

"Not if it gets me out of being arrested!"

"Officer," Aang said, interrupting the quarreling of the two oldest teens. "We're sorry we got locked inside the mall, and it won't happen again. But we're not the ones who should be getting arrested here! Long Feng, there, killed the security guard that went missing today, and we found him inside the arcade machine! _Then_ he kidnapped our friend, and more importantly my girlfriend-"

"What, she's not important as our friend?"

"We found a bunch of stolen party supplies in the storage room, too! And, most importantly, he kidnapped my girlfriend!"

"And do you have any proof?" Pakku asked.

"…No?"

"Please, Pakku," Toph said. "If you're going to arrest us, at least find our friend first, or I'll report _you_ to the police!"

"I _am_ the police!"

"CIA, FBI, whatever! Cuz I am taking you _down!"_

Pakku ignored the blind girl and asked Long Feng, "Were there any more children with these four?"

Long Feng took a long look at them. The others glared back. "No, I'm afraid this was all of them."

"You frickin' liar!" Zuko yelled!

"Injustice! Pure injustice!" Sokka yelled.

"Just move that arcade game over here," Aang pleaded, "and break open the lock for us! That'll prove everything!"

Pakku stood there for what seemed like a long time.

"You're not honestly going to believe them, are you?" Long Feng questioned.

Pakku stood there even longer. At last, he waved his hand as a motion to his officers.

"But sir-" Long Feng began, but never finished.

"I don't want to hear it," said Pakku. "If these kids are as serious as they seem, then you have a lot of explaining to do."

"But it's absurd!"

"Could be," was all Pakku said in reply.

The officers pulled the game into the center of the room. With all their might, they hit the lock with the butt of their guns, and the lock finally broke.

Aang, Sokka, Zuko and Toph pleaded with all their might. _Let there be something._

One of the officers opened the door…

…and out came the dead body of Bato…

…and there with him, was Katara.

"Oh my, God, she's dead, too!" Sokka wailed.

Aang shocked and unable to believe it, rushed over and checked for a pulse. "She's breathing! She's alive, but she's unconscious."

"Mouth to mouth!" Zuko yelled suddenly. He dropped to the ground beside Katara. "Prepare for the kiss of life!" He took a deep breath, and was moving down when Sokka pulled on the back of his head.

"Hey!" Sokka and Aang both shouted.

"What can I say?" Zuko said. "When opportunity knocks, you don't question it. When you see a hot chick lying on the ground who possibly needs lip to lip, you don't question that either."

"That's my sister you're talking about!"

"His sister that happens to be dating me!"

As the teens bickered, Pakku looked at Long Feng. "I believe you owe us an explanation, Mr. Long Feng. Didn't you say that there were only four children?"

"So I'm supposed to be keeping track of them now?" Long Feng asked, brow raised.

Pakku sighed. "There isn't any proof, kids, so I'm afraid I'll have to take you in anyway."

"Let Katara wake up first!" Aang begged.

"Yeah, seriously," said Toph. "We think our friend's been dead for a few hours and we just find out she's alive. The least you could do is let us wake her up."

Pakku grumbled.

"Besides, she might have valuable information!" Sokka said helpfully.

"Um… yeah!" agreed Zuko, coming up with nothing better to say.

A random officer that happened to have a bottle of water on his person came over to them. He uncapped the lid of his bottle and poured it all over the tanned girl.

Katara, sputtering from the water, came back into life and opened her blue orbs to look at the odd scene above her.

"…Hello?" she asked.

"Katara!!" Toph, Zuko, Sokka, and Aang all shouted at the same time. All rushed down to hug her, even the emo with scar.

"Glad to see you back with us," said Zuko.

"Nice to see you, sis!" Sokka said with a soft smile.

"Happy to know you're not dead!" said Toph, grinning a bit too widely.

"I was so worried…" Aang said before leaning down and kissing her, which Katara happily returned.

"Couldn't you guys have done that at home?"

After pulling away, Katara looked around and saw the police and Long Feng around her as well.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Katara, can you remember anything from before Long Feng kidnapped you?"

Katara's eyes widened in realization. "I know _everything!"_

She stood up carefully, and the others watched her as to make sure she didn't collapse. "I found this letter taped to the back of a sign in the front of the mall."

She pulled the letter she had found out of her jeans pocket. "I guess Long Feng was too stupid to realize to take it." She handed the letter to Pakku to look over.

"The letter is from Long Feng to a man named Bonzu. According to the letter, both are in a secret society called the Dai Li, which is consisted of men who enjoy stealing and thievery. Every year, they have a party where everyone brings thins they've just stolen for the party."

"That explains the stolen stuff in the storage room!" Sokka said excitedly.

Katara nodded. "And it also says that Long Feng was forced to kill the security guard Bato because he discovered Long Feng moving the merchandise around in the storage room. He hid the body in the broken arcade game, something no one would look at until next Saturday when all the machines are checked over. But by then, he'd have the body buried somewhere in an alley, and it'd be off his hands."

"Whoo! You go, Katara!" Toph encouraged. The others cheered as well.

Pakku turned to Long Feng, anger etched in his old face.

"Officer, she obviously forged this note," said Long Feng as if he didn't quite believe it himself.

"So you're telling me," Pakku said, laughing slightly, "that an unconscious girl wrote a note to frame you?"

"…Yes?"

Pakku handcuffed the security guard. "Long Feng, you're under arrest for murder, kidnapping, and theft. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you do or say _will_ be used against you in the court of law."

Pakku looked at the kids. "And you kids are most certainly _not_ arrested." He smiled at them as all five of them cheered. "We'll give you kids a ride home, alright?"

Sokka turned to his friends. "After all this, I don't think I can go home with just Katara." Katara scowled at him. "What do y'all say? PJ Party at our place?"

"PJ Party?" Zuko questioned. "What are you, five?"

"17, as a matter of fact!" Sokka argued. "Saying PJ Party is just cooler than saying sleepover!"

"Uh, no. It's not," said Toph.

"Yeah, it is!"

"Let it go, Sokka," Aang said as he held Katara's hand so tightly it seemed he'd never let go. Actually, that was his idea.

"Whatever it's called, I'm up for it!" Katara said, grinning.

"What do you think our parents will say when we show up at 4 something in the morning with the police?" Toph asked, laughing.

Zuko was the first to answer. "First, they'll think we did something incredibly awful and scold us for it before knowing what we even did, Officer Pakku will explain how we were all locked in the mall, our lives were endangered, we solved a murder mystery and one of us was unconscious and mistaken for dead. Then they'll cry and say how we shouldn't have been in that kind of danger in the first place, then they'll say they're so proud of us, then cover the almost-dead Katara in kisses. And, to end it all, they'll say, 'But you're never going to the mall again!!'"

Everyone laughed.

"C'mon kids," Pakku called. "We're taking you home, now!"

The five cheered, happy to be leaving the heck-hole that was now the mall.

As they walked past the fountain, Aang tugged a bit on Katara's hand. "Hey," he said.

She turned to look at him.

"Yes?"

Aang pulled the necklace out of his pocket and handed it to her. "This is yours."

Katara smiled and gratefully took the jewelry. "Thank you, Aang."

The two stared at each other for a moment before kissing passionately.

Aang pulled away before they could get too far away from everyone else. "Don't ever leave me again," he told his lover.

"Promise," Katara replied.

The two began walking side by side once more, their linked hands swinging as they went. When finally caught up with the others, Zuko decided to say, "You know… none of this would have happened if Sokka hadn't wanted his man purse."

"_Not a man purse!"_

A/N: Phew! Done! I started this at nine in the morning, and I'm finishing at almost ten! O.O Sigh. But it was worth it, I suppose. I actually kinda like what I did with this… very happy with it! Hope you like it, Twilight Rose2! :D

Yeah, I had Katara kidnapped. I just love a good kidnapping in a story, for whatever reason. So I put that here! …Yay?

Okay, well I'm gonna end this before it gets any longer! I'm surprised I even made it this long! Or far, for that matter…

**Review and win an all new Zuko plush! Comes with authentic scar (on the correct side of the face) and over 18 action phrases, including…**

**-Hello. Zuko here!**

**-I'm good now!**

**-I must capture the avatar… that's what I used to say, at least.**

**-Sokka is NOT cooler than I am!**

**And of course…**

**-Tangy is da bomb!**

**So review and earn YOUR Zuko plush today!**

Tangy :D


End file.
